Dallas — Several old payphones in the Lakewood area are getting a fresh look thanks to an anonymous artist who is turning them into creative flower arrangements.
A relic of the past, it’s difficult to find a working payphone in the Dallas area.
One used to be in front of the boutique Talulah and HESS off Live Oak. What’s there now is just the phone box—an empty shell just waiting to be sent to the trash heap.
But last Saturday, manager Mandi Giallorenzo found that the box had received a makeover. A flower arrangement had been placed where a phone once was.
“It was such a fun surprise,” Giallorenzo said. “To take something that’s just an eyesore and to make it beautiful is a really great thing.”
The intriguing part is this isn’t the first time an empty payphone box has received a makeover in Lakewood.
Last fall, a payphone box in front of the bar Strangeways got the same treatment. Owner Eric Sanchez says it gave his parking lot some flair.
“Before, it was just a cubby for trash,” Sanchez said. “This just kind of polishes things up a bit.”
WFAA discovered two other phone boxes filled with flowers in the area. One was down the street from Strangeways in a parking lot at Fitzhugh and Capitol avenues. The other is across the street from Talulah and HESS in a convenience store parking lot.
All the while, no one in the area seems to know who is turning these old payphones into creative art pieces.
However, Sanchez and Giallorenzo don’t seem to mind.
“That’s the part that I really like. Like there’s no name, it’s just the flowers,” Sanchez said.
“If I could say something to them I would just say thank you for putting your art out there and for making it something that everybody can share,” Giallorenzo said.
And with more payphones disappearing, it’s likely this mystery artist will keep giving empty payphone boxes a fresh look.
“It’s going to get to the point where it will be a rare sight to see a payphone—than to just see these flowers,” Sanchez said.